Most Texans say they'd back tax boost to raise teacher pay

Updated 12:13 am, Wednesday, October 3, 2012

AUSTIN — Nearly three-quarters of state registered voters would be willing to pay more in taxes to raise teacher pay, according to a poll released Tuesday by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Texas Lyceum leadership group.

Voters decidedly wouldn't be willing to pay more for school administrators. Only 20 percent would fork over more to boost their salaries.

But majorities said that in addition to raising teacher salaries, they'd be willing to pay more in taxes for school staff, construction of new schools, additional instruction in art and music and investment in computers and high-tech equipment.

The Sept. 10-26 statewide phone survey covered topics including public and higher education, health care, water and the state law requiring a sonogram before an abortion.

The survey resulted in 1,175 completed interviews, with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.83 percentage points.

The poll comes after Gov. Rick Perry and the Republican-dominated Legislature cut back hard on public education funding in response to last year's budget crunch.

It shows even Republican support for paying more taxes for some key education items. For example, the 74 percent who said they'd pay more taxes to raise teacher pay included 60 percent Republicans and 91 percent Democrats.

For most of the other education items for which a majority of voters overall would pay tax dollars, GOP backing was in the 40s — except for investment in computers and high-tech equipment, which was favored by 58 percent of Republicans.

“This is actually consistent with what you see in a lot of the national data,” said Daron Shaw, University of Texas government professor, who conducted the poll.

Mark Jones, Rice University political scientist, said it's a better poll question than simply asking people if they want to invest more in education, but he added: “In the end, the problem will be this is an abstract concept. What are those taxes, and what do they involve?”

It also leaves the question of whether GOP lawmakers would be willing to risk “the opening that voting to raise taxes will provide to an opponent in a primary,” Jones said.

Also on state revenue, 64 percent said they would be willing to pay more in water tap fees to ensure state water needs are met. The idea was backed by 70 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of Republicans.

On higher education, 40 percent said public universities are among the best in the nation but 42 percent said students don't get a fair return for what they spend.

In addition, 46 percent said they want to reregulate college tuition but 48 percent said they want to keep deregulation.

Of those who want to keep deregulation, 18 percent said tuition should remain deregulated, and 30 percent said deregulation should be coupled with help for low-income students.

Perry is pushing for higher education changes that he says would make degrees more affordable and costs more predictable.

When asked about federal health care reform, the poll noted that Republicans and Democrats were “mirror images of each other with respect to their opinions toward the law.”

More than 80 percent of Republicans had either extremely or somewhat unfavorable views of the federal Affordable Care Act, while more than 80 percent of Democrats had a somewhat or extremely favorable view of the law.

Looking at voters overall, about a 9 percent plurality said Texas should take advantage of the Medicaid expansion under the federal law, with 49 percent saying the state should do so and 40 percent saying it should not because Medicaid is a broken program — phrasing used by Perry. Again, Democrats were greatly in favor of the concept while Republicans were more likely to be against it.

On the law requiring a sonogram before an abortion, there was another notable partisan divide: 69 percent of Republicans favored it and 62 percent of Democrats opposed it.

Among other health questions, 64 percent of those surveyed said today's children are much more likely to be fat and out of shape than when the respondents were kids.

Many blamed parents not controlling what their children eat (31 percent); modern technology, such as televisions and computers (24 percent); and fast food and a bad diet (17 percent).

Responding to a question about Perry's political future, about two-thirds of Republicans are keeping their options open about supporting Perry if he runs for re-election.

The survey of likely voters found 29 percent of Republicans said they would vote for Perry if he runs for governor again in 2014, while 5 percent said they would vote against him. Sixty-six percent said they first want to see who else is running.

Among likely voters overall, 53 percent said they would have to wait and see, while 30 percent would vote against him and 18 percent would support him. Just 5 percent of Democrats said they would vote for Perry.The questions about Perry's re-election prospects and other ballot questions were asked of a random subset of the overall sample, and likely voters were part of that group. The likely voter sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.66 percentage points.